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Key
Recommended
Unfamiliar
Not Recommended
Common Software & Plugins
Prototyping Softwares
- Free, Pro is $10/mos
- Good for personal use
- Free up to 2GB cloud storage, some space and font limits
- Not good for teamworking in real-time (have to port changes)
- Great for prototyping
- Can prototype with AdobeXD phone app on Google Play and App Store
- Easy public sharing
- Can be cloud-based but
also has desktop app
- PC or Mac
- Good for prototyping
- Free 30-day trial,
then $29/mos
- Steep learning curve
- Can be cloud-based but
also has desktop app
- PC or Mac
- 30 day free trial
- Highly Convenient
- Rapid online prototyping
- Ready-made components
- Can be cloud-based but
also has desktop app
- PC or Mac
- Free
- Instantaneous live-changes in real time
- Great for collaboration
- Not so good with interactions in prototyping
- Hard to navigate/classify projects on the desktop app
- Easy sharing for public access
- Can be cloud-based but
also has desktop app
- PC or Mac
- Has Desktop app
- Can import sketch files
- PC or Mac
- Many companies in Silicon Valley use this.
- Meant for teams, costs money
- Rapid prototyping, testing and handoff, user testing
- Great for very pixel-perfect detailed layouts, but XD is probably still better
- PC or Mac
- Only available on MacOS Mojave (10.14.4) or newer
- $50 one-time-fee for students. Interface isn’t as clean as Figma/XD
- Free for students (after signing up for a free trial and emailing the support your student ID
- Free trial for 14 days, then lowest is $19/mos for basic
- Need phone # to sign up
- Can be cloud-based but
also has desktop app
- PC or Mac
Cool Plugins
Artboard Studio - Free plan, also a $15 membership plan. Add embedded mockups to your file. Good in Figma
Behance - Allows you to select artboards from Adobe XD and share on your Behance portfolio as a work in progress. Other Behance users can see, share, reply to, and add reactions to your work
Iconify - Search for and add icons to your prototype. Saved me a couple searches for open source cursor and sandwich-menu icons. Available for Figma and Sketch, and also for front-end web!
Pattern Maker - Create seamless tile that can be used in a repeatable grid cell in Adobe XD
UI Faces - Adobe XD allows open-source images of people, searchable with parameters. For AdobeXD, Figma, and Sketch
UnDraw - Easily add in UnDraw illustrations (free, no attribution needed) in Adobe XD
Unsplash - Easily search and embed open-source high quality photos into your wireframes. For AdobeXD and Figma
UserTesting - Select an audience and set up a prototype, mockup, or a blank template for user testing. Need to login using your UserTesting account. Free for 14 days and available on Adobe XD
Vectary 3D - Embed and generate 3d renderings of your screen mockups
Useful Sources
Research Tools Map - Best user research tools to find gaps and overlaps in your stack
